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No More Good Days
| season = 1 | episode = 1 | aired = September 24, 2009 | title_image = friendship bracelet | writer = David S. Goyer Brannon Braga | director = David S. Goyer | guest_cast = Alex Kingston as Fiona Banks Barry Shabaka Henley as Agent Vreede Lee Thompson Young as Al Gough Rachel Roberts as Alda Hertzog Genevieve Cortese as Tracy Stark | co-starring = Lennon Wynn as Charlie Benford Bryce Robinson as Dylan Simcoe Ryan Wynott as Dylan Simcoe #2 Blair Redford as Joel Kelly Galindo as Distressed Woman Loren Lester as Neurologist Ken Rudulph as Pundit #1 Bill Lagattuta as Pundit #2 Ted Garcia as Pundit #3 Cynthia Addai-Robinson as Nurse Kent Shocknek as Medical Correspondent Daniel Zacapa as Hector Ammar Daraiseh as Arabic Man #1 Raj Maan as Arabic Man #2 Brandon Bell as Paramedic #1 Pete Koch as Paramedic #2 Jim Lau as Asian Man Chyna Layne as Nervous Woman Cooper Huckabee as Trucker Drake Kemper as Teenaged Boy James Carraway as Older Man Derwin Jordan as Person in the Crowd | uncredited = Seth MacFarlane as FBI Agent Robert J. Sawyer as Hospital Visitor Rishi Chitkara as Taliban Basil McCurry as Driver }} No More Good Days is the first episode of season one of FlashForward. It first aired on September 24, 2009. A mysterious global event causes everyone to simultaneously experience, for two minutes and seventeen seconds, his or her life six months in the future. Summary On October 6, 2009, Mark Benford awakens in the wreckage of a car, apparently confused and a bit beaten up. He climbs out, distraught, and looks around to find himself amidst destruction and confused chaos. He screams for Demetri as he takes in his disturbing surroundings. Pre-Blackout Four hours earlier, Mark is getting ready for work. He greets his wife and daughter lovingly and serves breakfast to the girl while she is watching a cartoon before heading out to his car through his broken garage door, where he sees his child's babysitter. Olivia calls Bryce Varley to see why he wasn't at work the day before but he doesn't answer. He is walking down a pier, looking around nervously. He looks out over the sea, glances passingly at his cell phone and intently at his California driver's license, then reaches into his bag and pulls out a gun. At what proves to be a meeting for Alcoholics Anonymous, Aaron Stark is describing his grief at receiving thirty-seven pounds of remains of what had been his 118-pound daughter Tracy from the Marine Corps and that he had taken a drink that night. Following the meeting, Mark asks Aaron why he had not yet called a nurse and acquaintance of Olivia named Amanda; Aaron agrees to call her. On a street in Los Angeles, Mark and Demetri are in a car, chatting about Demetri's upcoming wedding. Demetri is unhappy with his fiancée's choice for their wedding song, Islands in the Stream by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. Mark, apparently bored, is reading the paper while Demetri snaps photographs with a telephoto lens of a meeting between a woman and two suspected terrorists, Khalid and Omar. Back at the Benford house, Nicole and Joel are engaging in foreplay on a couch. Nicole is worried about waking up Charlie, who is napping, but Joel convinces her not to worry. Olivia is preparing for surgery with a team of doctors. The three suspects Mark and Demetri are observing leave in a black SUV, which they follow. The SUV spots them and takes off quickly down the highway. Mark and Demetri chase after the car, swerving in and out of traffic. As they approach an intersection, the black SUV collides with a station wagon and makes a sharp turn. Mark and Demetri follow, narrowly escaping a collision of their own. As they haphazardly make their way to another intersection, they swerve around a car to find themselves heading directly for a gas tank truck. Demetri screams as the blackout begins. Blackout See: Global Blackout and Flashes Post-Blackout .]] Immediately after the blackout, Mark is again in the wreckage of his car. He climbs out and again takes in his surroundings. He walks through the chaos, calling for Demetri. He walks past piles of bent metal and broken glass, dead bodies, fire, past screaming people who are running around, out of their minds with terror. Mark looks around, distraught in his helplessness. He climbs atop a car to see the entire city of Los Angeles in a state of chaotic destruction. Demetri spots him and they meet up. Bryce is lying on his back on the pier. We awakens to see a group of balloons soaring upwards. He hears the shouting of a surfer in the sea below and rushes to help. Aaron, who was working at the top of a power pole, awakens to find himself hanging by his safety harness and he calls for help. Olivia and her surgical team awaken to find their patient has died. Nicole is relieved to see that Charlie is okay. Charlie scares her and reveals she had a bad dream that "there were no more good days". Mark and Demetri are trying to get a cell phone connection when they spot the black SUV. They pry it open to find the blonde woman inside. Demetri pulls her out violently and tells her he knew they were planning an attack and that the FBI knew about "the suitcase". Demetri calms down and convinces Mark to try to get to Olivia at the hospital. After a bit of reluctance, Mark takes off. On his way to the hospital, Mark encounters many disturbing sights: looting, a car crash, piles of dead bodies and a kangaroo. He encounters an electronics store with a crowd gathered around it, watching televisions reporting the worldwide blackout. At this time he hears from Olivia and instead heads to his office. At the FBI office four hours later, Mark enters a meeting wherein a a group of agents try to wrap their heads around the day's events. We discover that 877 planes crashed, along with countless cars and other fatalities. As the group talks, Mark interjects with the revelation that he did not simply "black out" and instead had a vision, and the group concurs. Later, Al Gough tells Wedeck that they can corroborate his Flash because it involved a meeting with Inspector Fiona Banks of Scotland Yard by calling Banks; during the call, Gough and Banks agree that they were meeting at the un usually early hour of 6:00 AM (London time), that they were discussing the Rutherford case, and that they were interrupted when a bird flew into the window. Janis Hawk, Stan Wedeck, Mark and Demetri compare their visions and decide to open an investigation led by Mark, Demetri and Janis with help from a website where people can explain their visions. Mark and Demetri then retreat to Mark's office and begin analyzing his vision and building the Mosaic Investigation wall, starting with five post-it notes that Mark is able to recall. The top of the wall features monthly calendar sheets from October 2009 through April 2010. Demetri stretches a string between October 6th and April 29th. made for her father.]] People share their visions with one another. At the hospital, Bryce and Olivia are worried about a young patient whose father can't be found. Bryce then reveals that he has been contemplating suicide and calls his vision "a gift from God." Olivia says that she saw the end of her marriage. In a dark kitchen, Aaron tells Mark that he saw his daughter alive in his vision, and Mark reveals he was drinking again and his worries about how that will affect his marriage. Later on, Mark and Olivia recount their visions to one another, although Marks omits his drinking. After their emotional discussion, Mark is sitting on a swing on a swing set in his back yard when his daughter walks up and says she had a bad dream. He takes her in his lap and she gives him the friendship bracelet he was wearing in his vision. Though he is disturbed, he allows her to fasten it around his wrist before hugging her tightly. At the hospital, Dylan Simcoe's father, who was also a part of Olivia's vision, arrives to be with his son. At the FBI office, Demetri is on the phone with Zoey when Janis calls him over to see security footage from Detroit showing a person walking around during the blackout. Trivia General * "No More Good Days" is a quote of Charlie, who after waking up from the GBO tells Nicole that she had "dreamt there were no more good days". * In a film clip released through the website www.jointhemosaic.com the date of the blackout is specified to October 6, 2009. This was later confirmed in . * The code Mark entered to open the safe is 2009. * The plate number of the black SUV of the terrorist suspects is 8QR722Y. * The sum of the digits of 10/6/2009 - the day of the GBO - and 4/29/2010 - the day to which everyone flashed forward - both equal 18. * The address of the Benford home is 1684. * The Detroit Tigers played their last game of the MLB season on October 6, 2009. But they played it in Minneapolis, where the Twins beat them, 6-5 in 12 innings, in the tie-breaker for the AL Central championship. The Tigers had spent 146 days in first place and became the first team in Major League history to lose a three game lead with four games left to play. * The blackout's duration is 2:17. In the Bible, Acts 2:17 reads "'And it shall be in the last days,' God says, 'That I will pour forth of my spirit on all mankind; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams'". Ratings *This episode pulled in 12.5 million viewers on ABC in the United States. On Five in the United Kingdom, it had 3.2 million viewers, gaining a 13 percent share of the available audience at the time. On its series debut telecast, FlashForward became the first regular program since "Friends" in 2004 to beat "Survivor" in the key young adult sales demo. It was an exceptionally strong draw among Adults 18-34, dominating its time period and qualifying it as TV's No. 1 new drama series this season. The new series is greatly improving ABC's time period year to year, boosting the hour by 1.8 million viewers and by 32% in Adults 18-49 over the same nights last year. Based on DVR playback during season-premiere week, FlashForward finished as TV's biggest freshman gainer, as its numbers jumped by 2.0 million viewers (12.5 million to 14.5 million) and 8-tenths of an Adult 18-49 rating point (4.1 rating to 4.9 rating) from the initially reported next-day numbers to DVR finals. Production Notes *This episode served as the pilot episode for the series. On May 8, 2009, the episode was screened before several ABC "network brass," and was received very well, prompting the network to order the production of thirteen episodes. *Four of the promotional flashes that aired during commercials between episodes of Lost were taken from this episode, be them actual flashes (like that of the Mosaic card or ultrasound) or events of the present (like that of the kangaroo or surfer). *A different cut of the TV spot discussing the GBO, as seen by several of the characters, is included in the "About the Mosaic" video. *The character of Dylan Simcoe is portrayed by two actors in this episode: Bryce Robinson and Ryan Wynott. Music * "Goodie Bag" by Miss Eighty 6. (Nicole drives up to the Benford house). * "Quiet Dog" by Mos Def. (Nicole & her boyfriend on sofa while she's babysitting Charlie). * "All Your Tears" by Mojave 3. (Olivia arrives home as Mark works on the garage door). * "Islands In The Stream" by Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton. (Demetri watches a music video while talking to Zoey on the phone). Bloopers and Continuity Errors * When Fiona Banks answers Al Gough's call, the is a half moon outside her window; however, on late October 6, 2009, the Moon phase was almost full. Cultural References *An Oceanic Airlines billboard appears in the background of one scene, a reference to Lost. *Advertisements for both Lost and Desperate Housewives appear on the side of buses. Both shows air on ABC and are co-produced by ABC Studios. * The Vatican: FBI director Stan Wedeck sarcastically inquired if the Pope has chimed in with an explanation of the global blackout. File:Oceanic airlines.png|Oceanic billboard easter egg File:Lostbus.jpg|Half of the Lost's logo on the Bus File:DesesperateBus.png|Desperate Housewive's logo on the Bus Literary Techniques *The entire premise of this show, as deliberately explained with the idea of flash forwards, is the foreshadowing of events. **This is also understood from what Charlie Benford said about her "dream", "I dreamt there were no more good days." Unanswered Questions Flashes *What is the nature of the future seen in the flashforwards - is it destined to occur as seen, or can it be changed? *Who is "D. Gibbons"? *Who are the men trying to kill Mark? *Who is the father of Janis Hawk's baby? *What is the nature of Janis Hawk's pregnancy that she had an ultrasound at 10pm at night? *What do the drawings seen at the beginning of Aaron's flash mean? Suspect Zero *Who is Suspect Zero? *Why did Suspect Zero not black out? Demetri *Why was Demetri not in the car immediately following the blackout? *Why didn't Demetri experience a flashforward during the blackout? *What was the "suitcase" Demetri said the FBI knew about? Other *What caused the GBO? *What was a kangaroo doing running free in the streets of downtown Los Angeles? *What is the significance of the color coding on the calendar pages at the top of the Mosaic Investigation wall? *Why is Rutherford important? *Why is the hospital so calm and serene the night of the GBO? Considering that every single car on the freeway at the time of the blackout would have crashed one would expect trauma wards to be overwhelmed. }}